California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a law barring state cooperation with any attempt by the federal government to indefinitely detain people. The legislation targets the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Brown signed into law AB351, which goes beyond any other state in
rejecting federal indefinite detention power, according to the
Tenth Amendment Center. The law reads, in part, “It is the
policy of this state to refuse to provide material support for or
to participate in any way with the implementation within this
state of any federal law that purports to authorize indefinite
detention of a person within California.”

The NDAA allows the US military to indefinitely detain
anyone - sans charges or a trial - on the basis of “national
security” concerns. The legislation has drawn a series of
legal challenges and attempts in several states to limit its
strength.

California’s new law not only targets the NDAA provisions, but
also any future federal law that grants officials open-ended
detention powers.

Though the NDAA has not been used to date, both administrations
of Presidents Obama and George W. Bush have claimed power to
detain indefinitely without charge “enemy combatants”
caught in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world at Guantanamo
Bay and other prisons.

In September, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges
announced that he would be taking part in a federal lawsuit
demanding the Supreme Court weigh in on the
constitutionality of the NDAA provision allowing for indefinite
detention.

That move was only the latest in a long legal saga following a
legal victory with the appellate court of New York which last
year declared Section 1021 of the NDAA unconstitutional. The Obama administration quickly
appealed that ruling, and in July it was overturned.

Hedges, who says he has illegally been held by the US government
numerous times during his career as a foreign correspondent,
wrote that the appellate court overturned the initial victory
against the NDAA because “with respect to citizens, lawful
resident aliens, or individuals captured or arrested in the
United States, Section 1021 simply says nothing at all.”

“The court, in essence, said that because it did not construe
the law as applying to US citizens and lawful residents we could
not bring the case to court,” Hedges wrote in his September
op-ed.

Hedges pointed out that the Supreme Court may never hear the
case, as it receives some 8,000 requests each year. Out of those,
it only hears between 80 and 100.